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Friday, May 3, 2013

Day 3 - Rafts

This couldn't be a more perfect topic for us right now. Grandpa Neil just bought a boat, a big boat. On Monday, Lachlan got to go with Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Angela and cousins to go officially buy the boat and take a 2 hour boat ride on the river to it's new home. For the trip of course we got out his life jacket and talked to him about boat safety. Leading up to and after the boat trip all he had wanted to do is wear his life jacket, all the time. So when today's lesson gave him another reason to wear it, he was more than thrilled to oblige.

We ate our breakfast and then went straight to the Circle Time song again today. We put our calendar piece up and charted the weather. I asked the opening question - What have you been on that floats in the water? "A boat!" Lachlan exclaimed. I started the Farmer in the Dell track and started singing Let's build a raft, let's build a raft . . . I only got through a little bit of it before I knew I was going to lose the kids, they were ready to move on. So I did too. I turned off the music and invited them to build a raft with me. I had a stack of left over Subway napkins and we spread them out to build our raft. I had them all hop and board.

Next I started on the Be Responsible lesson as we sat on our newly crafted raft. When have you had to be responsible? Do you know what responsible means? "uh umm, you have to listen." I was happy and surprised by his quick response. We are already getting better at the open ended questions. I then asked how to be responsible on a boat. Oh boy, did he know the answer to that. "Wear a life jacket and listen to the grown ups", he said. The life jacket was leaning against the couch where it was left last night after I convinced him it would not be comfortable to sleep in. So I asked if he wanted to put his life jacket on and helped him suit up. I then put the "I am responsible" bracelets on all of the kids. They thought these were pretty cool.

You can see him standing on our "raft".

I am responsible bracelets.

It's fun to work these lessons into other moments that just happen through out the day. Peter, my 2 year old, wanted to go outside to blow bubbles. He started opening the door and Lachlan says "ah ah ah Peter you have to put your shoes on!" (I have no idea where he get's these things.) Although he was correct his tone was very harsh. So I thanked him for being responsible because wearing shoes outside is the responsible thing to do. I just asked him that next time he say it a little nicer.

Somehow the TV which I had paused turned back on and Lachlan quickly got pulled in. I needed a plan to get him distracted again with out causing a fight over turning the TV off. So I gasped, and said "oh that's so silly, beavers don't fish with fishing poles." This got his attention right away because we get the High Five magazine by Highlights and they have a That's Silly puzzle which Lachlan loves. So he came over to take a look at the next lesson View on the River. The find glasses were a big hit and he found the items quickly. I look forward to taking a look with Peter.

I next gave them a purple piece of paper to cut into a raft for the Purple Raft part of the lesson. All the kids enjoy cutting and it is such a good fine motor task. I can't say any of their papers looked anything like a raft, but who cares. We glued them onto the purple page in their My Little Journal after taking a moment to write their names on the front. Peter and Lucy each drew a line. I had set their name tags on the counter for them to look at while writing their names. I wasn't sure what I would get from the little ones but was pleasantly surprised by both of them. Peter drew a vertical line the full height of the space, I believe he was trying to mimic the vertical line in the P at the beginning of his name. Lucy's line was horizontal, mimicking the horizontal line from the L in her name. I might be reading more into their little lines then I should but they were both concentrating very hard on this task. They are smart little kids!

Not an ideal writing grip, we are working on it. :)

Putting glue down to glue his purple raft to the purple page.

Cutting out his purple raft.

I have the next lesson set up with the foam diamonds and the counting card at the top of the learning tower. So when the kids climb up they have something waiting for them, as I often like to do.

2 comments:

Tracy I don't think I've ever commented before but I absolutely love reading about what you are doing. The adventures you are having teaching and being Momma to your precious boys! I am really proud of you. Have a great weekend! Hugs, Settelmeyer :)

Every year I create a Shutterfly book for each of my kids. January 8th through January 7th of the next year for Lachlan and February 13th t...

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